Letter 9/30/13

Dear Family,
Sorry my last few letters have not quite been up to par, but we have been pretty busy.  I wrote Grandpa Bill a few weeks ago, and so that letter was very short because I wrote him a fairly long letter.  I am very slow at writing, so I am sorry that I have not been writing long letters.  I just can never think of anything new to write, so that may seem like the same letters.  Hey, All I can say is that President Hunt just said one hand-written letter a week.  He never said how long it needs to be! But, alas, I will admit that I have not been as diligent as I should have been in writing to you, so I end where I begin, I am sorry.

Now that the important stuff is taken care of, I will proceed to...well...something else :).  As I have written before, our Zone has made the goal to find 160 new investigators.  We have been praying and searching diligently for these elect (John 10:14-16).  This last week we had the end in mind as the transfer came to a close.  WE only had 35 people left to find, but we knew we could achieve our goal.  We (Elder Ewell and myself) looked everywhere to find them who would receive us.  We did our best and found three people who accepted what we said, and asked that we come back.  WE as a Zone found 25 people!  This was 10 short of our goal, but we still found 150 people in 6 weeks!  In the previous transfer we only found 90, so we are very excited to see the improvement and the hastening!

Well, I have been here in Longview for 3 short months, and I must bid it farewell.  I have come to love this complex city, but I must move on to bigger places, downtown Portland!  I have always wondered what that side of the river is like.  And in a few short days I will found out.  I think it might be something like Sodom and Gamorah, but hey, everyone changes.  I have only heard GREAT things about the ward I am now called to labor in.  Not only that, but I have the opportunity to serve with Elder Olsen again!  I am very excited because he is one of my very best friends!

This past week I had the opportunity to study the 3-5 minute lesson plans in "Preach My Gospel".  How simple is it to share the Gospel.  It is literally part of our everyday life.  If we have the spiritual calisthenics to recognize the opportunities to spread the Gospel.  I know just learning short statements of truth will resonate with those who are all around us!

I love you all and hope this will suffice!
Love,
Elder Hamblin